Parents

=Using edmodo with Parents=

School Policy Communicating with Parents What are Parents saying? Parent Accounts Addressing concerns about parent accounts

School Policy Decisions Required
Your school executive will need to make decisions at outset about parent involvement in the use of edmodo:
 * Will you send explicit communication about the introduction of edmodo? How will you communicate?
 * Will you require explicit parent consent for their children to use edmodo - or will you make opt-out provisions?
 * Edmodo expects all students under 18 "may only use this service and disclose Personal Information with your parent or guardian's express consent." http://www.edmodo.com/corporate/privacy-policy
 * How does edmodo use fit into existing parent consent given to the school?
 * Will you treat all year groups the same?
 * Does student participation in a one-to-one laptop program (such as the DER laptops) automatically grant consent?
 * Will you permit parents to participate in edmodo? (see Parent Accounts below)
 * What will you do if a parent asks for their child not to participate?

**What appears to be happening in NSW DEC Schools (May 2011)** : Each school executive is making their own decision.

Communicating with Parents
Here is a sample letter based on material from Bianca Hewes and Nordin Zuber which could be used as a template for parent information and consent. Note this form comes with an explicit consent form. If your school decides not to do this, drop the second page.

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Parent Accounts
edmodo has introduced parent accounts which allow parents to communicate with teachers through edmodo, as well as giving limited access to class edmodo group. Parents accounts may view posts written by their child and view their child's assignments and grades. //Anything more?//

//If your school is using Parent Accounts, please write something here about the experience.//

Addressing concerns about parent accounts
Bianca Hewes explores the question of whether parent accounts will increase the workload for teachers at her post [].

Bianca suggests that:
 * The parent feature in edmodo offer so much more than just providing a way for parents to contact the teacher (which they can already do through other ways).
 * Issuing parent codes may actually reduce teacher workload - because it gives parents visibility of the things they most often want to know about: what is being taught, what is the homework, is my child doing it?
 * Students are more likely to do homework and assignments knowing their parents are watching for completion of the work.
 * If only some of your teachers are using edmodo, there is a concern that issuing parent codes may create too large an expectation on those teachers //not// using edmodo.